Re: Do you go to church?

As a Marine with my upbringing, i should be strongly catholic. I'm not. I've studied but never practiced many religions: Judaism, Islam (I speak arabic), Wicca, Christianity, Satru, Hinduism, Buddhism, not to mention the pagan religions predating any of those. As a Marine, I have found that the only religion I can take any real faith in is this: If god exhists, he will treat my soul as he sees fit. I can not influence this treatment, though I will do nothing to bring punishment. I clean and oil my rifle, my pistol, and my knife, in preparation for the defense of my home and country in the name of no god but Violence.

I have to say though, all religions have their problems. The Koran states that all "Infidels" must be killed, captured, or taxed. The bible, in Laviticus, list the laws of ancient Jew and Christians alike, and many of them are completely retarded, or mistranslated from hebrew to latin or from latin to english. Wiccans have all sorts of problems because of one such mistranlsation. "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live". The latin word here translated to witch is "Pharmaecopia", wich means POISONER! Witches have nothing to do with it!

If I had to pick dieties to worship, I would pray to Ares and Athena, Greek gods of War, because they have the most direct influence over my life and the lives of my family.

I will agree with one of you earlier in the topic, who said that the Ten Commandments are rules that general society can live by. Many of them are a little heavy-handed. A little dishonesty is sometimes exactly what the doctor ordered. Killing is sometimes neccessary, in defense of ones life, those of ones family, or in defense of ones country. One of the twins in the Boondock Saints said it best:

"Murphy: Do not kill. Do not rape. Do not steal. These are principles which every man of every faith can embrace. Connor: These are not polite suggestions, these are codes of behavior, and those of you that ignore them will pay the dearest cost. Murphy: There are varying degrees of evil. We urge you lesser forms of filth, not to push the bounds and cross over, into true corruption, into our domain.Connor: For if you do, one day you will look behind you and you will see we three, and on that day you will reap it. Murphy: And we will send you to whatever god you wish."

Awesome movie, good ideals.

[i]Verd ori'shya beskar'gam[/i]-A warrior is only as good as his armor.[i]Cogito, ergo armatum sum[/i]- I think, therefore I'm armed.

Re: Do you go to church?

Re: Do you go to church?

I love that movie. I actually saw it the other day for the first time. I love the whole twist that the guy is their dad and stuff.You are also completly right with the misinterpretations of the Bible. Its been translated hundreds of times and things could definitly get mixed up and said wrong.

Est Sularus Oth MithasI am a Role Playing Gamer, like my father before me.

Re: Do you go to church?

The commandment of "Thou shall not kill," however, has been proven to be mistranslated from the original text through the ages. It is more accurately stated, "Thou shall not murder." Otherwise, we soldiers would be guilty every time we've gone to war. I don't think that the Israelites would have had a standing army after escaping Egypt, in order to retake the Promised Land, if it was literally "Thou shall not kill."

I went to a Baptist school from 4th grade to 10th grade. This is why I'm a General Protestant now and not Baptist. As I got older, I realized just how narrow minded some denominations seem to be. The more I read the Bible to more I began to question some of the things I was taught in Bible class. Given that in school at the time, it was just that, a class. It wasn't theology school or something that was going to get you into really deep studies like that. But there were a lot of inconsistencies of what was being taught and what was actually "literally" in the Bible. I was always taught about the rapture that happens before the coming of Christ. The rapture is not in the Bible. Anywhere in the Bible. This was something that was brought about by some English guy that put reference notes in the pages of the Bible. I believe his name was Scofield. Yeah, I just Googled it, that's where the Scofield Reference Bible comes from.

The belief that you have to be Baptized to be saved and go to heaven? Nowhere in the Bible. I think this is something that has been taught in the Catholic church for a long time. My wife's family is Catholic and my best friend used to be. Now he's Baptist, though. When he told me that I said, "so, they scared the hell out of you, didn't they?" That's because that's all I heard growing up. The same rhetoric of burning in hell.

Being a Baptist, it always seemed to me most of the sermons were meant to scare you into being saved for fear of going to hell. But when I read the scripture, I don't get any of that. When I read it, I get that God is love. The only commandment that Christ ever gave is to "love one another." I guess John Lennon had it right, when he said all you need is love. I believe that God is just and that he is fair. I don't believe that he'd let all these people in North America and South America that had never even heard of Jesus before missionaries came, go to hell just because they were ignorant of the Bible. That's not very fair at all. I think man has it naturally within himself to know that there is some higher power that has made everything around us. Even the American Indians have the Great Spirit. The Pagans, the Earth Mother. I used to be just like some others and thought that if it wasn't Christian it was wrong. It was of the devil. I've been very fortunate to have friends that worship a variety of religions. As I said, one of my friends was Catholic, my best friend is Mormon, one of my other best friends is Wiccan, and still another of my friends is an atheist. Heck, one of my friends even worships Thor. I didn't even think people worshiped any of the classical gods anymore. But there are actually quite a lot. We've always talked about religion and we've always been civil about it. I think it was more curiosity about what the other really believes, coming from the source, not from some second hand biased account. I remember always being taught about what Catholics and what Mormons believe, when I was in school. Having friends that actually practice those religions, what I was taught growing up couldn't have been farther from the truth. Having a wife that used to teach religious studies has been a blessing, as well. She's a veritable fountain of information about religions I've never even heard of. I think this is why ignorant people probably **** me off the most. If you can't take it upon yourself to do the actual research about a subject that you have no idea about before spouting off about it, then you should probably just shut your pie hole. Because that's just lazy and ignorance at is best; pretty much anything coming out of your mouth at that point is crap with no actual basis for it. This is why I can't stand the majority of televangelist. They make it all about money and just cheapen religion as a whole.

I believe that overall God is love, no matter what you call him. Even Islam, in it's pure form, is based on love, not violence. I've found that to be true of pretty much all religions that I've studied about. It's always been man that has put hate into religion. I think that hell is simply the absence of God in your soul. He doesn't force it down your throat. Believe in me or I'll kill you. They had a name for that. It was called the Spanish Inquisition (all of a sudden Monty Python pops in my head--I keep waiting for them to pop in my room ant moment--"No one expects the Spanish Inquisition"). Jesus never forced it down peoples throats from what I read in the Bible. When I think of Jesus, I always picture him laughing and smiling, for some reason. He preached to the dregs of society. He wasn't so high and mighty that he thought he was above that, like a lot of religious leaders today. He even visited and ate with them. But he never judged them. Real Christianity (or any religion for that matter) is tolerant of every other religion. He told him what he believed and left it at that, for them to decide whether it was for them or not. Free choice. He didn't force it down their throats. If they didn't want to hear it, they didn't have to listen.

All of this "my God is better than your God" is a man made thing. How many times have we killed in the name of God (Christian or Muslim)? It's still going on. I have to agree with Kevin Smith on this one. Like he pointed out in that movie "Dogma," I think killing in His name pisses God off more than anything.

Anyway, I've rambled on for quite enough. I'm glad to see that everyone's been keeping civil on here, so far. When this thread first started I was kind of iffy about it, and almost closed it a couple times. Just remember to keep it civil, though. And do not force your beliefs on someone else on here, or I will close the discussion. Usually we try to stay away from stuff like this, because nothing brings out the worst in people like politics and religion. It's actually kind of interesting to see so many people getting involved on here. So, keep it clean and keep it friendly, please.

--Sadriel Fett (BFFC Moderator)"I'm just a simple Fan, trying to make my way in the universe."

Re: Do you go to church?

I think in times of war, if your a soldier or cop, it is okay to kill the enemy. I think its more saying don't kill some one if you don't get treated. Example: A dude walks up to a guy and kills him, thats a big No No, but if you are in war I personly think its okay.

Re: Do you go to church?

Raj'el Vhett wrote:

The bible, in Laviticus, list the laws of ancient Jew and Christians alike, and many of them are completely retarded

Most old Testament laws stoped applying to people when Jesus came from heaven to Earth, They do not apply to modern day Christens. Like when the old Testament says: do not work on the Sabbath, Jesus healed a sickman on Sabbath, which is considered work.